Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 THE PUZZLE AND THE THEORY
- 2 COMPARING KOREA AND THE PHILIPPINES
- 3 INSTITUTIONS: BUREAUCRATS AND RULERS
- 4 MUTUAL HOSTAGES IN KOREA
- 5 BANDWAGONING POLITICS IN THE PHILIPPINES
- 6 DEMOCRACY IN THE 1980S AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 1997
- 7 CONCLUSION: CORRUPTION AND DEVELOPMENT
- Index
4 - MUTUAL HOSTAGES IN KOREA
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- 1 THE PUZZLE AND THE THEORY
- 2 COMPARING KOREA AND THE PHILIPPINES
- 3 INSTITUTIONS: BUREAUCRATS AND RULERS
- 4 MUTUAL HOSTAGES IN KOREA
- 5 BANDWAGONING POLITICS IN THE PHILIPPINES
- 6 DEMOCRACY IN THE 1980S AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS OF 1997
- 7 CONCLUSION: CORRUPTION AND DEVELOPMENT
- Index
Summary
I don't want any position. … I did not want even to be the leader of the revolutionary government, let alone that of the Third Republic. As for rank, my position was only the third. I wished only to be an errand-boy in the rear.
– Park Chung-heeThe year 1995 saw the emergence of a corruption scandal in Korea that resulted in convictions of three of the nation's former presidents, jail sentences for numerous businessmen, and the early retirement of a number of military officers. Although it was revealed during their trials that Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo had amassed over one billion dollars, many suspected that the actual amount was far higher. Indeed, woven into the story of Korea's economic success is an underside of systematic influence peddling and money politics, and both reflect substantial continuity in the institutional foundations of pre- and post-1987 South Korean politics. The 1995 scandals raise a number of questions, including, Why has corruption occurred so regularly in both Korea and the Philippines? Why has it taken the form it has?
In this chapter we turn our attention from the institutions of governance to the larger institutional environment. The series of institutional changes made under the Park Chung-hee regime (1961–1979) is often used as the starting point of Korea's high-growth era. Yet the Park regime was hardly depoliticized, and in fact money politics was pervasive. Not only was corruption extensive, but political connections overrode economic criteria and allowed for overcapacity and bailouts of indebted and poorly managed firms.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Crony CapitalismCorruption and Development in South Korea and the Philippines, pp. 96 - 121Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002